November 1st Already!?

Halloween is over and it's already November 1st. Time flies by when you keep a busy schedule and are having a lot of fun. The first half of my Halloween morning consisted of baking Pumpkin Spice Muffins and on into the afternoon making a mixed trio stir fry consisting of chicken, steak and shrimp with a dash of sea salt, basil and margarita mix added for what Emeril would say "BAM!" for to be a delicious, sweet tasting dinner.

As 3pm rolled in, Drew came home from work, we sat at our computers for what seemed less that 15 minutes and decided that we were going to go hang out with our friend Sike for the evening. As we arrived, we couldn't help but notice how packed town was with all the kids trick-or-treating. Sike's road was especially packed. He had to keep the front porch lights off and his doors bolted for fear of kids wanting candy at his house (laughs). We tried to sneak in, but alas, a drove of children came flocking in behind us as we set foot inside his front door, adorned with costumes and yelling "Trick or Treat!". Sike was prepared for this, with a bowl of candy setting out on his kitchen counter and being friendly to the children, commenting them on how awesome and cool their costumes appeared. After the children got their hands full of candy, they left, and with that, Sike bolted the door once more (laughs again).

We found our way into Sike's living room where he was watching an Alfred Hitchcock Marathon. The story lines were very interesting. Sike mentioned that he had seen so many of the episodes, many were depressing to him due to the murders in each story. He also mentioned that many of the scenes used in the stories were from the same house, just redecorated to look like they were different. I will have to watch several episodes to see if that is so, though would guess that the producers would have had to keep on a low budget and mostly wanted to appeal to the viewer with the story line more than the background scenery.
After watching about 3 episodes, Drew and Sike both agreed that it was time to go get something to eat. We decided (now don't laugh) to go to the Waffle House. We didn't go to the one closest to town. We decided to go on down to the next little town over to eat. It was about a 15-20 minute ride from where lived and sometimes the service is a lot friendlier and doesn't feel like a rushed atmosphere. When we arrived, it did seem a little packed, but there was still a booth available, so we went on in and had a seat.

The first 5 minutes of sitting down in a restaurant are critical, because your waiter/waitress will come up to you and introduce their selves and then, usually you give a big introduction back. Drew decided he would take charge of this on this certain occasion...I will warn ahead of time, after this I didn't know whether to laugh or smack him up-side the head." Our waitress greets us. Apparently she had seen Drew and I in the establishment before we were to ever been married. She had a very good memory and said "It's been a long time since I've seen you both here!" She had been gone for 2 years and recently came back to work for Waffle House. Drew and I are like "Yeah!" and "Has it really been that long?" It doesn't even seem like that many years had gone by since last seeing her and it's almost like it only happened a few months ago instead of years. Also, if I hadn't mentioned Drew is wearing his Halloween costume, I am in a black, glittery, long sleeved shirt and pants and Sike is having to wear a sling around his arm due to the fact that he had injured hisself at work and had to have surgery about a month or so back for a rotator cuff. Drew replied to the waitress "Yeah, I am suppose to be a Starfleet officer, My wife here is a witch and Sike is the old crippled man"...If I wasn't going to smack him I am pretty sure the waitress was wanting to (laughs).

The waitress took our orders down and Sike, Drew and I had fun just talking and watching all the kids coming in with their costumes on. At Waffle House, kids who come in with Halloween Costumes on get a free waffle. That's why it was mostly packed the whole evening. After our dinner was over, we headed back to our house to watch a semi-Doctor Who Marathon. We started at Season 3 episode 11 "Blink". One of my favorite episodes of all time. and we ended up at Season 3 episode 13. We will be furthering our adventures the next time Sike comes over to hang out. (smiles). All in all, I had the best Halloween this year.

Fall is here, let's get busy : )

Hello there! It's been awhile since my last blog post. I have been keeping myself busy. I hope you are doing well and thank you for reading this blog post. If by the end of this story you enjoy this article could you give it a G+ =)it would be much appreciated. I will begin by saying that I have been out of work for about 2 months, so had plenty of time to cooperate after my last in-home care job. I had been working for 6 months in a town almost an hour away from home going to. various people's home helping them with their needs. As a Certified Nursing Assistant you almost always run into a situation where you find yourself caring for terminally ill clients. In more than one occasion you are dealing with mentally ill clients. I have found myself in this situation more than once while working in my last job. I will note, however, that I had seen other nurses deal with a lot worse than I could have ever dealt with in a care facility. Those nurses have to stand on their feet constantly 4+ hours at a time with no break. They also deal with biting, fighting and "rowdy as all get out" ( as we say in the south). Thankfully, I am in a new job that doesn't deal with that much stress. My neighbor had recently needed to have back surgery, and definitely couldn't stay home alone. Usually her daughter would need to stay out of work on occassional days or hire a nurse from a nursing service, but who only had a limit of a 4 hour work schedule, and my neighbor needed someone who could take more time to stick around and work around her daughter's work schedule. This is where I had come in. This worked out well on both sides because I had the time on my hands,I needed a local job, and my neighbor needed someone she knew and could trust to help in any house work or even just to help care for her without being on a time limit. So, here it is, day 2 of my new job and I have kept myself busy, mostly baking and helping prepare a meal for my neighbor and her family. I am just feeling so blessed at the moment to be able to help in anyway I can.

It has been awhile since I have sat back and typed anything in this blog page, but recently, I have found something to write about. This week, Drew and I are adopting a 6 month old kitten. It is almost close to having our own child, and almost acts like one too at times. Today, I had taken it out to see my parents. To say the least though, it was not a very happy kitty. It couldn't really stay out of its carrier for more than 2 minutes, because it likes getting into things, and the way my parents house is, there's plenty to get into. After about an hour and 1/2 stay, we were ready to head back home, which is over an hours drive. On the way back, Nermal (that's what we've named her, "Nermal "Sweet Pea" Cartee" ) kept on whining, for good reason too, she had made a mess in her carrier. I had to pull the car over half way down the road and let her out of her carrier and let her sit in the back seat of the car. Yes, I did clean her off, but there was still that horrible smell in the car.

When we got back home, I would almost think that Nermal was angry toward me, partially for her not having a litter box with me and making a smelly mess. I cleaned her off and cleaned the carrier out as well, and for about 2 hours, she would not come near me, and went to hide herself in the closet, in a pouty mode, and went to sleep after a little while longer sitting in it ( It is an open doored closet). I finally went to go pick her up, she was trying to claw at me, and was meowing like she was still a little angry toward me. Thank goodness we trimmed her claws to where she couldn't scratch, because she would if she could. It took about 5 to 8 minutes before she'd finally settle down and let me pet her and though, she still had a little angry glare in her eyes. ( Poor kitten). She is finally resting on a blanket next to me on the bed, resting herself after the long day she has had. I am hoping that with some more time, she will grow to like it here and like me and Drew a bit more as well. I have grown too fond and attached to her, and was even sad yesterday when she was gone for a long period of time. My father-in-law had taken her to the vet to get her operation, she came back woozy headed, so that may be a bit of factor in her temperament as well. I will try to post more soon. Later =)

Gaming Vs. Priority

One of my friends from our local game store here in Forest City usually posts up pretty cool things on her blog page. She uses a different lay out with Word Press, where as I am more prone to use Blogger as my main blogging source because I am more adapt to it. Sometimes, she will post some religious things and other times, she will post about her gaming days at the store. As it happens to be, I actually have a story to post today myself, after putting this nice little music maker on this post, courtesy of my friend Robin.

Well, let's see..My Birthday is this Sunday and I and my husband will be going to Marion to see my family, first to church and then, hopefully, we will get to go across the mountains ( Avery, Mitchell and Yancy Counties in Western NC and Tennessee). My husband Drew has never been across the mountains and I wanted to show him the places where I grew up. Mind, I've always lived in McDowell County, and before I met him, lived in the same house/ neighborhood until I was 26 years old. I would go across the mountains in almost every season to go visit relatives and go to little thrift stores along the way in Spruce Pine and near Banner Elk. My grandmother lived in a little community named North Cove until she couldn't take care of herself any longer. We didn't put her in a rest home mind you, but we did put her in a little apartment complex close to town where a lot of other elderly people lived, sort of a retirement community. This weekend, I am hoping to be able to share these sites with my husband in hopes that he can get a feel of how important these hillsides are to me in the sense of a home away from home. 

   The gaming aspect of this story is that he would rather stay home playing his video games that out on the road having to travel at all. You may begin to ask "Why are you making him go with you?" or the latter "He really should pay more attention to being with you than in his video games." and this is the reasoning...This Sunday is my 30th birthday. I want to be able to share this milestone with my husband. Before we even started discussing what would be happening this weekend, he was given a few choices. One of the choices given was that the game store owner had invited him to go to a sort of comic con convention. When I found out, I had called my parents to tell them we could not make it on Sunday. He told me to call them back all because he "heard the disappointment in my father's voice". So I called back, asking if he was positively sure he didn't want to go with him instead, and he said "I am sure!". Next thing I know, the store owners wife keeps calling him and begging for him to go with her husband to the convention. He starts making a few suggestions to the point of wanting to go to the convention and leaving me with my parents during the weekend. I find this to be horrible because I don't want to spend a whole weekend with my family and him just go off to a convention leaving me there. The difference is, I can't get along with my family for that long. They can drive me crazy just after 1 day. 

   I think one of the worst suggestions I have heard from him yet, that made me angrier than a hornet was "Why don't I just leave you at your parents house for the weekend, and I stay home playing video games?" I almost felt like throwing dishes at him by this point because it was a big deal to me. He'd rather stay home in his games than be with me sharing something precious that means everything to me, mostly my culture and my roots. He'd rather spend his thoughts in a video game! That drew my last straw to the point of me saying "Go! Get Out!". Because I didn't want him in my sight after he'd said all this to me. I got to the point where I was basically about to cuss him out and just say F it all... not to the point of ending my marriage, but just calling and  canceling the plans all together. "Why not do that?".. Because, I had also scheduled for that Sunday to sing for my church. That was the main reason for going to Marion to begin with. Not in reasons of "showing off", but to keep my promise to be attentive, and not fall back just because my husband is in gaming mode. It was also an opportunity to spend a whole evening with my husband, friends and family on my birthday, sharing 30 years of life. If that isn't reason enough, then I don't know what is. Finally, he agreed he would go with me, though, it seemed more like an "I'm forcing you to go!" moment to me than a retaliation moment where he realized that it was important to me that he went. I guess by Sunday, I will have my answer. I am just hoping he can see the bigger picture until then.

Easter 2011 Weekend

Ok, so I admitt I am not much of a journalist when it comes to keeping up with blog pages, yet, will find myself to write in at any possible moment I can. Last week was a bit hectic with lots of errends to run, and keeping up with scheduled time. The tiredest day I had came on Sunday afternoon. It was Easter holiday, and Drew and I had went to visit my parents and family. All was well, we got up around 8:45am, headed on to McDowell County, and met my parents in the Freewill Baptist Church. The sad news of this was it was one of our pastors last days of preaching. He had resigned 2 weeks earlier for unknown reasons.

   After services were over, we headed to my parents house. I had brought a nice white cake with buttercreame frosting with a flower design. We put it in the refridgerator and headed on out to Kentucky Fried Chicken. My dad had pulled one over on us and bought our whole meal, something for which we are very thankful to him for. After KFC, we went back to their house, and sat and talked awhile. Nothing really too important to decuss, other than the weather and how we were all getting along in our lives. I had also went next door to see my eldest sister Elizabeth and her family, who had company. They had been remodeling their home and one of my little nieces was rearranging her room, so I helped her out. The most tiring part of my visit was sitting in the dinning room, watching my mom go through scrapbook websites. After a while, I couldn't stand anymore, and went outside to go find Drew and my Dad, who were next door on another set of property they own, sitting on his mobile home back porch he had built last summer. After about what seemed 4 hours, Drew and I finally left for home, leaving my parents the cake to take on a picnic they would be attending later on that evening. A very good, yet tiring visit.

   Today, I seem to be even more tired than usual, yet know, I must get some house chores done this week. Drew is at his favorite game store and will be hopefully getting a phone call sometime this week about a job for the county school system. Also, this week, we are looking to go to his father's house in Lenoir for a family reunion. I did not get to attend last year, so this will be a new experience for me going in, considering I haven't met most of his father's side of the family yet.
  I have talked Drew into attending my family reunions come this Fall. He has never been to places like Avery, Mitchell or Yancy Counties. I had grew up in the Western North Carolina Mountains, and my father's and mother's families mostly live up there. It will be a nice treat to be able to wonder through the country side and hills once again as I once ventured as a young girl.

Planting Your First Vegetable Garden

Planting Your First Vegetable Garden
I really found this to be a very useful piece.

Chicken Soup Casserole & Strawberry Muffins

This evening, I decided I would fix supper at home, even though Drew had offered to take me out to supper tonight. I thought it would be a nice change since we go out 2-3 times during the week, and when we do eat at home, it's usually a fast cooked meal in the microwave or bowl of cereal. When I came upstairs, Drew and his sister Kim were working on homework assignment, so I got started on preparing the meal at hand. Tonight I would fix a chicken soup casserole and strawberry muffins. The things you will need to prepare for the chicken soup casserole are as follows:


1 can of vegetable oil cooking spray
1 deep oven pan \_____/
1 semi-deep frying pan
4 chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken soup & 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup ( can be large or small depending on how much casa role you are wanting to fix)
Aluminum foil ( to fit ontop your oven pan)
1 baking sheet
preheat oven to 450 degrees and turn stovetop on to medium high


   I started by taking a large frying pan, spraying vegetable oil into the pan. Usually when we shop for chicken, we buy a big packet of boneless chicken breast. Out of this packet I chose 2 large and 2 small boneless chicken breast and put them into the frying pan. Putting the heat on medium high to high, grill the chicken on both sides till white all the way through. After this, turn your stovetop off and take your chicken out with kitchen thongs and place them onto a cutting board. With a huge cutting knife and a fork to hold the chicken into place, cut the chicken to start in long lines, then chop into simi-small squares. In a deep oven safe pan, place the chicken squares, aligning along the whole bottom of the pan evenly.
   After this, open 2 cans of cream of chicken and 2 can of cream of mushroom soups. pour these evenly upon the chicken squares in your deep oven safe pan until all the chicken is completely covered. Mix in the soups evenly, and take aluminum foil and cover the top of your pan completely. Place the oven pan onto a baking sheet and when the oven is pre-heated, slide the baking sheet with oven safe pan on top into oven. If have an oven timer, set for 1 hour or 60 minutes. When finished, you'll have a nice warm dish of chicken soup casserole.

By the time I had finished this dish, Drew and the rest of the family were away from the house. Drew's mom and step-dad were gone grocery shopping at Wal-mart, Kim had returned home and Drew had went to work  mowing the yard for our store owner friend. I decided to fix the strawberry muffins, and afterward sent Drew this picture below with a message...

" When you get home, this will be waiting for you <3"...=)   The cooking may take some time, but in the end, you'll come to enjoy the outcome of your own creation.